Publications

March 11, 2013

Darby Ups Homer Total to 13

Wildcats Unable to Hold Leads at Snowy Snow College

Sydney Darby hit two more homers, leadoff hitter Jennifer Quam returned from a hand injury and Western Nevada College led in two different games, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a three-game softball sweep to Snow College on Friday and Saturday.

Snow College rallied to win 6-3 and 6-4 on Friday in Ephraim, Utah, before heavy snow and unplayable field conditions shifted the Scenic West Athletic Conference series on Saturday to Spanish Fork, where the Badgers closed out the 3-0 sweep with a 9-1 victory.

The teams were scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday, but only a single game was possible after the teams traveled 90 minutes to a different location. Snow College cleared Badger Field of nearly 2 feet of snow, but umpires ruled early in the afternoon that the field was too slick for play.

“It was definitely slip and slide,” said WNC assistant coach Rosie Contri, who served as the Wildcats’ head coach in place of Leah Wentworth. “If we would have played on the field, somebody was going to get hurt.”

On Friday, when conditions were much better, the Wildcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the opener. Quam, who missed most of the team’s previous game after being hit by a pitch on her already injured left hand, led off the game with a single and stole second base. She scored on Darby’s 12th homer of the season.

WNC starting pitcher Ali Marie Lostra shut out Snow in four of her six innings in the circle, but the Badgers rallied to score three times in the third and fifth innings for the 6-3 win.

Darby knocked in two runs and Heather Septon had one RBI. Andrea Lee doubled for WNC, while Alisha Nielsen led the Wildcats by going 3 for 3.

WNC built a 4-0 lead in the second game of the doubleheader, scoring four times in the third inning on four hits and three walks. The Wildcats nearly made it 7-0 on Quam’s bases-load shot over the third-base bag into left field. The home-plate umpire, however, ruled the ball foul.

Snow responded, and tied the score at 4 on Katie Greenberg’s solo homer in the sixth. The Badgers added two more runs before the inning ended to take the 6-4 victory.

Alisha Nielsen and Heather Septon had doubles, while Nielsen and Darby knocked in runs. Quam stole two bases and Madison Gonzalez swiped one. Nielsen went 2 for 3 to finish 5 for 6 at the plate in the two games.

Pitchers Carlee Beck and Alexia Alley held down the Snow bats most of the way.

In the relocated game on Saturday, Sara Park smacked a two-run homer in the first inning to put Snow ahead for good.

Greenberg also belted a two-run homer for the Badgers.

Snow scored two more runs in the third and put the game out of reach with a four-run flurry in the fourth. The game ended on the mercy rule when Snow pushed across its final run in the fifth.
WNC had five hits, but five errors hurt its cause.

“We made a couple of mistakes, but we just didn’t hit the ball like we did the day before,” Contri said.

Darby spoiled Greenberg’s shutout when she blasted a pitch beyond the left-field fence in the fourth inning. It was her 13th long ball of the season.

“She definitely has the potential to hit home runs, just like everyone on our team and just like Taleas Marble did last year,” Contri said. “When she wants to do it, she does it.”

Quam stole three bases in the series, bringing her season total to 21, according to Contri.
“They can not stop her,” Contri said. “She had a great weekend.”

Contri was proud of the way the shorthanded Wildcats continued to respond with their defensive versatility.

“Being that we are so shorthanded, we’ve been filtering players to all different positions. They are such great athletes that they are making it work,” Contri said.

WNC, which slipped to 5-14 in the SWAC, will try to rebound against rival College of Southern Nevada on Friday and Saturday at Edmonds Sports Complex in Carson City.

“We are excited to be back at home, and we always look forward to matching up with Southern Nevada,” Wentworth said. “We always seem to play pretty close with them.”